Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Ancient Lives is a collaboration between a diverse collection of Oxford Papyrologists and Researchers, The Imaging Papyri Project, The Oxyrhynchus Papyri Project, the Egypt Exploration Society and the following institutions.

The papyri belong to the Egypt Exploration Society and their texts will eventually be published and numbered in Society's Greco-Roman Memoirs series in the volumes entitled The Oxyrhynchus Papyri.

"You will marry your girlfriend, but you will be sorry." "You will inherit from your wife, but you will not be the sole heir." These are the words of an oracle attributed to Pythagoras which supposedly also helped Alexander gain world supremacy. The "Sortes Astrampsychi" were transmitted on papyri from the Roman period and medieval manuscripts in Greek. Consisting of 92 pre-formulated questions and 1030 matching answers from nearly all areas of daily life, the oracle represents an important source for the social history of Egypt, for example its demography, economy and jurisdiction. In this commentary on the "Sortes Astrampsychi," the author focuses on the background of its use in antiquity and the contextualization among the religious, divinatory and magical practices of Egypt, in particular the "ticket" oracles in Demotic, Greek and Coptic.

Even though the text of the ancient lot oracle known as Sortes Astrampsychi is not one of central concern to classical scholarship, it has had its share of attention in recent years. The Teubner edition of the shorter version by G. M. Browne appeared in 1983, and in 2001 R. Stewart’s Teubner text of the longer version (the so-called ‘ecdosis altera’) came out;1 both scholars also published a series of valuable articles on this document. Stewart’s English translation of the text appeared in W. Hansen (ed.), Anthology of Ancient Greek Popular Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998) 285-324. In 2006 an edition of the Greek text with a German translation was published by K. Brodersen, Astrampsychos: Das Pythagoras-Orakel (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft). And now we have the monumental and exhaustive study of the Sortes Astrampsychi by Franziska Naether, an immensely learned work that the author completed when she was only 29 years. The book is so densely packed with information on all possible aspects of the study of the Sortes Astrampsychi (and many related documents) that it is impossible to do justice to its contents in this short review. The book can best be characterized as a comprehensive contextualization of the Sortes Astrampsychi.

Thursday, July 14, 2011

These are the oldest surviving poems written by the hand of a known poet. Dioscorus’s sixth-century manuscripts, with revisions and corrections, were discovered on papyrus in 1905 beneath the village of Kom Ashkaw, Egypt (ancient Aphrodito). The manuscripts are now held in museums and libraries around the world. Although Dioscorus was an Egyptian, he composed his poetry in Greek, the cultural language of the Byzantine Era. This critical edition begins with one of Dioscorus’s masterpieces: Hymn to St. Theodosius. Once considered obscure, its meaning becomes clear when seen through the lens of Byzantine spirituality.

Thursday, July 07, 2011

Fifth International Society for Arabic Papyrology Conference, Carthage,March 28-31, 2012The fifth ISAP conference will be hosted by the Tunisian Academy ofSciences, Letters and Arts, Beït Al-Hikma (/www.baitelhekma.nat.tn) inCarthage. It will be organized by the International Society for ArabicPapyrology in cooperation with the Institut français d’archéologieorientale (Ifao) in Cairo.The conference will start on the evening of Wednesday, March 28, andcontinue through Saturday, March 31. The programme will include20-minute lectures presenting text editions or studies based ondocumentary material from the Islamic medieval world, workshops in whichunedited Arabic documents will be presented, and evening lectures. Therewill also be the opportunity to visit the National Library of Tunisia(Tunis) and the National Museum of Islamic Arts of Raqqada (Kairouan),which hosts the only collection of Arabic payri in Tunisia, andimportant early Islamic manuscripts written on parchment.Participants are supposed to be or become members of the InternationalSociety for Arabic Papyrology.SummaryThe fifth conference of the International Society for Arabic Papyrology(ISAP) will take place at the Tunisian Academy of Sciences, Letters andArts, Beït Al-Hikma, in Carthage.It will bring together scholars using documentary evidence to study thehistory of the early Islamic world, including Arabic, Coptic, and Greekpapyri, paper and other documents, as well as epigraphic and numismaticmaterial. Participants may present their research either as 20-minutepapers or within the context of workshops on Greek, Coptic, and Arabicpapyrology and palaeography.Conference FormatThe Conference will include 1) text workshops and 2) sessions for thepresentation of 20-minute papers and 3) evening lectures at localresearch institutes. Although the "official language" of the conferenceis English, papers and workshops may be given in English, French,German, or Arabic.Text WorkshopsThese workshops will focus on a single text, or group of texts, to becirculated in advance. The texts used may be in any of the languages ofthe documentary sources relevant to the history of early Islamic Egyptand the wider Mediterranean world (Greek, Coptic, or Arabic). Atranslation of the text should also be circulated to allow for thewidest possible participation. The presenter will have the first thirtyminutes to introduce the text and its problems, and then the remaininghour will be spent in discussion.Paper SessionsThere will be several sessions during which three or four 20-minutepapers, followed by questions and discussion, will be read. While thetopics addressed need not focus exclusively on documentary evidence, itis expected that documentary sources will be an integral and substantivepart of each paper.Abstracts and HandoutsThe deadline for 400-word abstracts is November 1 2011. Please sendabstracts to Sobhi Bouderbala (sbouderbala atifao.egnet.net). If yourpresentation will require audio-visual equipment of any kind, pleasedescribe what is needed. Notification regarding the acceptance ofproposals will be made by the end of November 2011.Also, please send a copy of all texts and translations to be used in thetext workshops by 15 February 2011. These will be made available toparticipants.RegistrationThere will be no conference fee charged. Participants who currently haveno membership should renew their membership in Carthage on the first dayof the conference. Payments have to be made in cash in Euros, dollars orTunisian dinars. If you are interested in joining ISAP, information canbe found at the ISAP sign-up website.Please send a notice of intent to participate in the Conference to oneof the conference organizers, Petra Sijpesteijn (p.m.sijpesteijn athum.leidenuniv.nl) or Sobhi Bouderbala (sbouderbala atifao.egnet.net)Travel SubsidiesIt is hoped that the Conference will be able to offer a few awards forscholars not able to get institutional subventions for travel to Carthage.Please let us know as soon as possible whether you will be in need forsuch sponsoring.Conference OrganizersIf you have any further questions about the Conference, please contact:Petra Sijpesteijn (p.m.sijpesteijn athum.leidenuniv.nl) or SobhiBouderbala (sbouderbala atifao.egnet.net) or check the conferencewebsite (http://www.ori.uzh.ch/isap/Conference2012.html).